Just a few weeks ago, while diligently working away at a little coffee house in Boulder, I quite literally had a fellow designer stumble on to me. To no surprise of my own, we sparked a conversation thanks to my 19 3/4″ laptop resting on a stool across from me pumping out a 72 hour HD rendering. We began chatting about graphics…animation software…film software…and the conversation just carried itself from there.
I spent hours talking with this very talented man, Ned Warner, and was lucky enough to document our conversation into the Daily Diatribe. I think that Ned is truly an inspirational man and talented artist; his passion for his work is clearly evident and his outwardly communicated excitement for design is nothing short of contagious.
Ned is currently living in Boulder, Colorado and just recently began his own Graphic Design and Web Design freelance work. His overall focus rests in visual communications, and he is able to execute design solutions in the realms of video, photography, DVD authoring, web design, graphic design, and more. As our conversation carried on, I also learned that Ned is an incredible musician. I not only received the pleasure of speaking with Ned about his musical endeavors, but also enjoyed the tunes from his newest CD as I rode in the car on Highway 36 all the way home.
Ned carries this air of design independence a simplicity in thought that is both exciting and refreshing. It was a pleasure to meet him.
While Ned’s Quirklust pages aren’t up yet, don’t you worry. You can hunt him down at Ned@nedwarner.net. Check out his website at www.nedwarner.net, and don’t forget to check back on Quirklust to visit his page when it goes live!
Lust on, Ned! Congrats in all of your newest ventures. We here at Quirklust are wishing you the best.
Interview with Ned Warner
CR: What inspires your work the most?
NW: Well it really depends on the work. I love the challenge of making good creative decisions. I love taking a long time to figure out what will work best visually. Not just in an aesthetic sense but then you have the added component of what really functions best for the client. It’s like a puzzle, you know? We as designers have creative skills, and we have clients who have needs. Whether it’s a website or a video piece, I have found that being a good designer is using both judgment and skill to create the best solution.
CR: So when did you really get started with your work? Tell me about your roots in film.
NW: Well, in regard to my start…we have to go back years. I have always been an artist of some sort. Whether it was writing tons of poetry in high school, writing songs, painting, sculpture…everything. In college I majored in printmaking with a minor in photography. Really, printmaking was my first love.
But film…film work is and was still a part of my process. Mostly small projects, you know? Like music videos. I have what seems to be the standard freelance film gear these days…my Canon 7D…it’s not a full frame camera. I got it because I already had so many Canon lenses. At the company I worked at before, we switched from using big, bulky cameras to a Canon 5D—which is one step up from the 7D—it allows for full frame shooting…so you’re technically getting everything. It’s crazy, though. These days technology is changing at such a rapid pace that these things are becoming irrelevant.
Anyway, back to your question about film.
I have been working with film for a long time. It really started out when I completed a film class in high school, which led me to the New York Film Academy. Travis Fox…that’s an important name. He was a total inspiration for me. He’s this incredible documentary filmmaker and he made me want to be one. He was this multi-award winning filmmaker. I tried to emulate that, you know?
Anyway I went to Colby College in Waterville, Maine. This whole thing really started when I got a job for the Communications Department at Colby College. This was a sort of for students, by students publication. It hosted audio podcasts, blogs, you name it. Essentially, these people heard about me and knew that I was a film guy. That’s where I got my first start.
I made a great friend there—one of my best buddies. We got to talking, and decided to start a biweekly video podcast series. We really wanted an initiative…we wanted to start something.
Basically we would go around campus and make three to five short video pieces about aspects of life at Colby College. These videos were fun and quirky…the whole thing was really a great eye-opening experience for me. It was just this amazing coincidence, you know? We did that for years. It has actually gotten quite a lot of attention over time…we actually got awards [laughing].
CR: Awesome. So what about after that..? Anything develop from your job at Colby?
NW: Well, this led to some independent projects in video while I was still obtaining my degree in printmaking. You see, Colby has this really interesting system. There were two semesters—but, the month of January acted as its own term where students could focus on one thing in particular and really get into deep study about it. For mine, I decided to go to India and make a BBC style film about water rights in India. In another January term, I basically spent three weeks in West Harlem, NYC before the inauguration of President Obama. I spoke with African Americans in the area about how they felt about having a black president.
CR: Sounds amazing. So how did you end up in Boulder, Colorado?
NW: Well basically right after graduation, I moved to Boulder. I knew friends in Boulder—they invited me and a room happened to open up for rent, out of chance. After moving, I had pretty good luck finding a job within the first two weeks of searching. I started working with Sender Films as an Associate Producer. I actually worked there until I recently quit. It was a really great job. It was definitely a tough environment…tight deadlines, lots of yelling [laughing]. But, you know, so many great skills came from that job…and lots of really great portfolio pieces.
It was there that I started learning software like AfterEffects and began making some animated titles for their films. I also began to learn DVD Studio Pro—which is wonderful for authoring and creating DVD menus. I just really took a lot from there.
CR: You sound so passionate about film. How did you get involved with graphic design?
NW: Well, the reason I started to do graphic design was because a freelance job just sort of fell into my lap. It came through a connection. The client needed new advertising for his hotel in upstate New York. They needed to bring in more customers for the online business. I had been working with web and graphic design at that point…but really just designing things for fun. It ended up being great because it really was a big client…it generated a lot of business. You can check it out at http://www.Thelodgeatrockhill.com
So yea that was my first graphic and web project. I continued to work for the film company for a while doing freelance graphic work on the side—I made some portfolio websites—some for co-workers and their filmmaking, you know? I made some business cards…small stuff. But those things turn big because of word-of-mouth really quickly. Some of the people I was doing work for would tell their friends, who would then tell their friends…it’s really how I have gotten all of my business. It’s important.
CR: That’s awesome. I think it’s great you’re getting your feet into multiple areas of design. I always think design should span across multiple lines—those lines between disciplines should sort of be blurred if we are to create really stellar, practical, efficient, or beautiful designs. So on the note of multiple talents, you mentioned you are also a musician. Can you tell me more about that? How long have you been involved with music?
NW: Well, I have been playing guitar, writing music, and singing since I was about 13. Around the time I turned 18, I realized that I could write good enough songs to make a career around it—I really believed that if I had the right power behind me, they really were good enough songs, you know? I made a conscious decision right then, though…that I didn’t want to be a professional musician. I didn’t want to tour. Music has always been about pure expression for me.
The CD that I just released wasn’t my first CD. This is actually my third. The first was an EP that I made in high school called Waking Hand. I was really inspired at that time by my cousin Rose Polenzani—she’s one of the best songwriters I have ever known. Beautiful voice, just brilliant. She produced that first EP with me. We sorta spent time pent up in a cottage in Connecticut to work that one out. It was really amazing.
CR: So was that EP really the start of your formal exposure to music and production?
NW: No, not really. Right after high school and before going off to college, I went to get a certificate in audio recording. So I’ve worked in NYC as an audio engineer—it’s really how I got my formal start. Before that point, I’d just sit and hash out like, 120 poems a year. Just writing and writing, you know?
CR: That’s great! So how would you describe your music?
NW: I would say it’s along the lines of Folk/Americana. I’m moving to Larimie, Wyoming—so I thought I’d touch on a western tone. There’s a lot of interesting instrumentation in my work. There’s coloration for sure, you know? You’ll notice some banjo in there…lots of fun. It ranges from country rock to folk. It’s an interesting mix for sure.
CR: Your new album is called 500 Miles to Jackson. What inspired this title and the songs on the album?
NW: Honestly, my girlfriend Ashley is really the biggest source of inspiration for this album. Ashley and I—we are so connected on so many different levels. She and I have always been particularly linked through music. We love the same music, we value the same things in music. You know…we go to music festivals together, we wait for the Gillian Welch album to come out [laughing].
We usually go to the Telluride music festival together. I was out in Wyoming visiting her and we were in her little cabin—she literally lives in like, a 200 square foot cabin in the middle of the Grand Tetons. Anyway, we couldn’t make it to Telluride Music Festival that year, so we checked the radio and actually caught the live streaming of the show in Telluride. So, we pretended we were there. Even better, backstage. I got to play my own song on stage and everything [laughing]. We decided it was the best Telluride Festival ever.
But yeah, there are at least two songs on that CD that are about her. 500 Miles to Jackson is about traveling those 500 miles to be with her. It’s almost a literal metaphor for commitment and dedication. Western Lullaby…that’s just a straight up love song. You know, I’ve dated a lot of people in my life, but I’ve never met anyone who I felt I could write a song like that for. The song details our meeting, falling in love, and being together—it also looks forward to the future and what we hope to have together someday.
Visit Ned’s Bandcamp Website
CR: Going back to design, is there anything you think should change? Is there a movement you want to see…a shift in the art or design world?
NW: You know…I am really enjoying the movement of getting back to hand lettering—good typography just really gets me off [laughing]. I get the same feeling when I see good design—it’s like how I feel when I stand in front of Monet’s Water Lillies at the MOMA. It’s just…good.
CR: Well what about the digital movement? A lot of designers feel relatively caught between the values of the old processes and the new force of technology. Any comments?
NW: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with digital. For my own work, I often make my own patterns digitally. I think a lot of people in our generation are really embracing those sort of experimental techniques. There will always be a place, though…more traditional ways of silkscreening, hand lettering, etc. All those arts of sort of lost right now…not as ubiquitous—they might die out, you know?
CR: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
NW: Honestly, I’d love to get a MFA in graphic design in about three years. If it’s in the cards, I’d love to settled down with Ashley in some small town somewhere—you know, like Carbondale. My dream job—and this is coming from a place about making those videos back at Colby—I think back to my old job and I’m just reminded of how much I don’t want to do this work in big cities. I want to be in a small town somewhere where I can potentially get my hands on various things. Maybe where I don’t exactly have to specialize in something. I want to start doing work that really establishes that Indie feel, you know? There’s a company that makes concert posters that are all entirely hand-lettered. People respect that Indie feel, you know? They recognize its authenticity. When something in hand-made, even just a portion of it, you can sense a higher level of quality there—it’s imbued in the end product. That’s something that’s never going to fade out.
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